Clinic Owner Faces Abortion Charge

SANTA ANA — The owner of a family planning clinic, already under investigation in the death of a 27-year-old pregnant patient, was charged Monday with endangering the health of another woman by performing an abortion on her without a medical license.

The Orange County district attorney’s office charged Alicia Ruiz Hanna, 31, on a felony count of unlawful abortion by administering drugs and other substances and use of an instrument “with the intent . . . to procure the miscarriage” of the woman, according to the complaint.

Hanna faces a second felony count alleging the “unauthorized practice of medicine creating risk to a patient” by advertising herself as practicing medicine and diagnosing, treating and operating on the woman without having a valid license from the Medical Board of California.

She also faces a misdemeanor count of practicing medicine without a license and is scheduled to be arraigned today. Conviction on all three counts could bring a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Hanna was nearly released from Orange County Jail on Friday night after the district attorney’s office declined to file charges against her involving the death of Angela Niego Sanchez, a housecleaner from Orange. Sanchez died after visiting Hanna’s Santa Ana clinic, Clinica Feminina de la Comunidad.

Prosecutors said Monday that they are still awaiting the results of a series of toxicology tests by the coroner’s office to learn why Sanchez died.